Biden imposes additional sanctions on Russia: ‘Putin chose this war’
By Kevin Liptak, CNN
President Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled new, “devastating” sanctions on Russia meant to punish the country for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin for his aggression.
“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden said, laying out a set of sanctions including export controls that will “impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time.”
Biden said the new sanctions also include four Russian banks and “corrupt billionaires” and their families who are close to the Kremlin.
And he announced a new deployment of ground and air forces to NATO’s eastern flank, even as he reiterated US troops would not engage in direct conflict in Ukraine.
“Our forces are not and will not be engaged in the conflict,” he said. “Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in Ukraine but defend our NATO allies and reassure those allies in the east.”
Biden addressed the nation from the White House East Room, his first appearance in public since the Russian attack commenced late Wednesday. In written statements, Biden deemed Russia’s assault a “premeditated war” and vowed to hold the country accountable.
The new sanctions were selected from a menu of options that includes restrictions on financial institutions, bans on technology exports and blocks targeting members of Putin’s inner circle.
Mindful of rising gas prices in the United States, Biden said he was working to limit the fallout the new sanctions would have on energy prices. He said the US was ready to release barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve alongside its allies.
“I know this is hard and that Americans are already hurting,” he said. “I’ll do everything in my power to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump.”
The new sanctions, the latest US reprisals against Moscow this week, had been reserved as Biden hoped to maintain some leverage in dissuading Putin from a full-scale invasion. But so far, Western threats of economic punishment, as well as Biden’s strategy of revealing what the US knew about Putin’s buildup of forces to try to make the Russian leader second-guess himself, have proven ineffective.
After months of predictions and warnings, Russian forces began their attack on Ukraine Thursday morning local time, with reports of troops crossing the border to the north and south, explosions in multiple cities including the capital Kyiv, and warnings from Putin of future bloodshed unless Ukrainian forces lay down their arms.
Biden’s sanctions are now meant to punish Putin’s actions, rather than prevent them, by going after Russia’s economy, its military capabilities and those closest to the Russian President. How much they can alter Putin’s decision-making going forward, however, remains an open question.
Before he spoke, Biden conferred with the leaders from the Group of 7 industrialized nations about which sanctions they planned to impose, hoping to coordinate a response that projects unity among Western allies. US and European officials spoke by phone overnight into Thursday to coordinate their responses.
In a joint statement following the virtual meeting, the leaders of the G7 said Putin has “re-introduced war to the European continent.”
“He has put himself on the wrong side of history,” the leaders wrote.
On Thursday morning, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised to “weaken Russia’s economic base and its capacity to modernize” following the “barbaric attack” by Russia against Ukraine.
“We will freeze Russian assets in the European Union and stop the access of Russian banks to European financial markets,” she said.
Biden also convened a meeting of his National Security Council on Thursday morning to discuss the situation in Ukraine, a White House official said.
Biden’s top national security aides convened emergency meetings late Wednesday as Putin announced his plan to launch a “military operation” against Ukraine in a televised address. The speech was aired in Russia at the same time the United Nations Security Council was convening to condemn Moscow’s behavior, catching some delegates off-guard.
Huddled in the West Wing, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other top officials prepared a statement from Biden condemning Russia’s attack as “unprovoked and unjustified.”
“President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” Biden wrote in the statement, issued at 10:25 p.m. ET just as explosions began in Kyiv.
An hour later, Biden was on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who reached out to the White House as his country was coming under siege.
“He asked me to call on the leaders of the world to speak out clearly against President Putin’s flagrant aggression, and to stand with the people of Ukraine,” Biden said afterward in a statement. He said the US and its partners planned on “imposing severe sanctions on Russia.”
Biden announced a more limited package of sanctions on Monday following Putin’s initial decision to send troops into Ukraine following recognition of two pro-Russia regions in the Eastern part of the country. Those measures went after two state-owned financial institutions, three members of Putin’s inner circle and Russia’s sovereign debt.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments Thursday.
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